Diving into this Pounding Noise and Clubby Alt-Rock of Ashnymph and This Week's Top New Tracks

Originating in London and Brighton
For fans of artists like Underworld, MGMT, or Animal Collective
Up next A new EP planned for 2026, currently without a title

The two singles released up to now by the group Ashnymph resist simple labeling: their own description of their music as “subconscioussion” doesn’t offer many clues. The first single Saltspreader married a heavy mechanical drumming – member Will Wiffen has at times appeared on stage sporting a shirt that displays the emblem of industrial metal pioneers Godflesh – with retro-style synths and a guitar riff that vaguely recalls the enduring garage rock anthem I Wanna Be Your Dog, before dissolving into a wall of disquieting noise. Its intended effect, the band has indicated, was to suggest road trips, “the endless movement of vehicles 24-hours a day over vast spans … nighttime orange glows”.

The next release, the song Mr Invisible, falls between nightclub tunes and experimental rock. For one thing, the track’s rhythm, layers of hypnotic electronics, and lyrics that appear either trippily blurred or mesmerizingly repeated in a way that recalls Underworld's Dubnobasswithmyheadman period all indicate the dance space. Alternatively, its forceful live-sounding dynamics, brink-of-disorder feel and overdrive – “achieving a crunchy texture is a lifelong ambition,” Wiffen noted – set it apart as clearly a group effort rather than a solitary home producer. They've performed around south London’s DIY scene for less than a year, “anywhere that will turn the PA up loud”.

But each is thrilling and unique – mutually and anything else around at the moment – to make you wonder about the band's future direction. Whatever it is, on the basis of these two singles, it’s unlikely to be boring.

This Week’s Best New Tracks

Dry Cleaning – Hit My Head All Day
“I simply must have experiences”​, vocalist Florence Shaw states on their enchanting new track, but over six minutes – with exhales setting the pace – you get the sense that she can’t work out why.

Azimuth by Danny L Harle with Caroline Polachek
Welding Evanescence goth drama to classic 90s trance – including the line “and I ask the rain” – Azimuth suggests reviving your rave outfits and heading south west to rave, right away.

Robyn's Acne Studios mix
Robyn's composition for the Swedish designer’s SS26 show hints at her next record, including Soulwax-worthy grinding guitar, energetic beats like Benny Benassi and the words “my body’s a spaceship with the ovaries on hyperdrive”.

Jordana – Like That
Listeners adored her album Lively Premonition last year and the American artist keeps displaying her remarkable skill with choruses as she expresses unrequited feelings.

Molly Nilsson – Get a Life
The one-woman Swedish pop operation put out her new album Amateur this week, and this track from it is extraordinary: a electronic guitar part surges ahead with punk speed as the singer urges we grab life by the scruff of the neck.

Superstar by Artemas
After documenting jaded love and sex on his smash I Like the Way You Kiss Me and its underrated parent mixtape Yustyna, the British-Cypriot star is wretchedly in thrall to his latest lover amid pulsating coldwave production.

Miss America by Jennifer Walton
Taken from a notable debut album, a crushed synth hymnal about Walton discovering her dad had died in an airport hotel, mapping the strange setting in gentle refrains: “Shopping plaza, illegal trade, anxiety episodes.”

Kyle Douglas
Kyle Douglas

Eine leidenschaftliche Journalistin, die sich auf deutsche Kultur und gesellschaftliche Entwicklungen spezialisiert hat.